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soil

Pronunciation: /sɔɪl/

The English word “soil” has 18 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A mixture of mineral particles and organic material, used to support plant growth.
  2. The unconsolidated mineral or organic material on the immediate surface of the earth that serves as a natural medium for the growth of land plants.
  3. The unconsolidated mineral or organic matter on the surface of the earth that has been subjected to and shows effects of genetic and environmental factors of: climate (including water and temperature effects), and macro- and microorganisms, conditioned by relief, acting on parent material over a period of time. A product-soil differs from the material from which it is derived in many physical,…
  4. Country or territory.
  5. That which soils or pollutes; a stain.
  6. A marshy or miry place to which a hunted boar resorts for refuge; hence, a wet place, stream, or tract of water, sought for by other game, as deer.
  7. Dung; compost; manure.
  8. A food preparation with the texture and often color of soil.
  9. Faeces or urine etc. when found on clothes.
  10. A bag containing soiled items.
  11. A wet or marshy place in which a boar or other such game seeks refuge when hunted.

verb

  1. To make dirty.
  2. To become dirty or soiled.
  3. To stain or mar, as with infamy or disgrace; to tarnish; to sully.
  4. To dirty one's clothing by accidentally defecating while clothed.
  5. To make invalid, to ruin.
  6. To enrich with soil or muck; to manure.
  7. To feed, as cattle or horses, in the barn or an enclosure, with fresh grass or green food cut for them, instead of sending them out to pasture; hence (due to such food having the effect of purging them) to purge by feeding on green food.

Etymology

From Middle English soile, soyle, sule (“ground, earth”), partly from Anglo-Norman soyl (“bottom, ground, pavement”), from Latin solium (“seat, chair; throne”), mistaken for Latin solum (“ground, foundation, earth, sole of the foot”); and partly from Old English sol (“mud, mire, wet sand”), from Proto-Germanic *sulą (“mud, spot”), from Proto-Indo-European *sūl- (“thick liquid”). Cognate with…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.